Interior walls and ceilings of a construction are often made from drywall panels which are made from a core of gypsum plaster pressed between two outer layers or skins, typically of thick sheets of paper, and is often referred to as, plasterboard, wallboard or similar names. Although drywall panels are almost universally used because of their generally excellent properties for their intended use and the relative ease of their installation, the panels are easily damaged such as for example, by inadvertent contact with heavy or sharp objects, such as door knobs or other protrusions, or the like. Such contact leaves a surface discontinuity or imperfection usually in the form of a hole, tear, gash, indentation, crack or similar which is unsightly, draughty and requires repair to restore the integrity and/or appearance of the wall.
Often when constructing a new building, one or other of the drywall panels forming the interior walls of a room or similar need to be cut, such as to receive a fitting, or similar, such as for example an electrical conduit, a water pipe, waste outlet, cable or the like. Then, when the room is being renovated, often the location of the facility or service requires moving from the former location to a new location which leaves a gaping hole where the previous fitting or fixture was located. In many instances, the dimensions of the hole for providing the service or facility can be in excess of 200 mm or larger, particularly holes formerly provided for waste outlets. Such larger dimensioned holes are often very difficult to fill and/or conceal, particularly in a time efficient manner.
In the past, it was necessary to conceal the hole by either placing a cover over the hole which protruded from the surrounding surface of the wall or panel, or by repeated filling of the hole layer on layer from the peripheral edges inwards with each successive layer of a suitable substitute plaster material such as a paste, slurry, gel, or similar containing plaster or plaster substitute to fill the hole. Such repair operations were very time consuming as it was possible only to repair small parts of the perimeter of the hole at a time by building up layers of plaster material, each of which required curing or setting before the next layer of repair material could be applied to decrease the size of the hole because of the need to support the newly applied layer until it was finally fully filled in with plaster to cover the hole entirely. Otherwise there was a chance of the recently applied plaster material sagging under the weight of the recently applied plaster material if too much plaster was applied at the time. Often attempting to fill the hole with uncured plaster material resulted in collapse of the repair since the plaster material in the uncured state was not able to support the weight of the plaster forming the repair.
Accordingly, there is a need for a repair assembly and method of using the repair assembly which is self supporting and is less time consuming to enable a repair to be effected in a shorter time without having to wait for the plaster material to cure to achieve sufficient strength to support the application of additional material to complete the repair.
Another problem with existing repair methods based on using hand applied plaster mixes is that excess plaster material is required to be added to the hole in order to ensure the hole was fully filled which often led to excess plaster material accumulating around the perimeter of the hole and on the surface surrounding the hole, particularly around the apron of the hole. In order to fully conceal the hole and to remove traces of the repair, it was necessary to remove this excess material from the surface of the wall or panel by sanding back around the repair using a suitable sanding device until the area of the repair was smooth and merged smoothly into the area surrounding the hole and the remaining surface of the wall or panel. Such a sanding operation to form a smooth surface was generally a skilled job requiring expertise and knowledge as to how to obtain a smooth surface without leaving signs that a repair had been effected. Often because of the thickness of the plaster material added to the wall to completely repair the hole, when sanding back, tell tale signs of the sanding and hence of the repair remained to detract from the appearance of the wall when repaired, i.e. the repair was noticeable. Additionally, the smoothing of the repair material was time consuming which added to the cost of repairing the hole in a wall. Accordingly, there is a need for a repair method which allows better quality repair to be effected to drywall panels, particularly the repair of relatively larger sized holes and a need for a repair method which is quicker to effect.
Accordingly, it is an aim of the present invention, to provide a method and apparatus for repairing drywall panels.